New filtration tech boosts biomanufacturing yields, says Sartorius

Sartorius Stedim says its new range of sterilising-grade filters can allow steam cleaning in dry conditions and minimises protein binding.

The cartridges, launched under the Sartipore Platinum banner, combines two new technology platforms which together allow for greater wettability in filtration for biomanufacturing.

Firstly, the modified PES (polyethersulfone hydrophilic membrane) is chemically bonded to the surface of the molecule, rather than just stuck to it as previous methods saw. The uptick is that the membrane can withstand extremely high temperatures, and therefore cannot be flushed out during steaming.

Secondly, the twin pleating technology is a new way of pleating the membrane which increases its area by more than 60 per cent.

Speaking to told in-PharmaTechnologist.com at this year’s Achema, product manager for filtration technologies, Jens Meyer said: “With these new technologies it is possible to wet a 10 inch cartridge using only 2 litres of flushing volume, which is really drastic reduction of WFI (water for injection) consumption by about 95 per cent compared to other cartridges.​

“You can wet them in wet and dry conditions from both directions, and it has the lowest unspecific protein binding for any PES membrane on the market. It’s really a big step in filtration tech and clearly defines a new benchmark for filtration.”​

He added that the launch is a response to high customer demand for the ability to steam cartridges.

“Many customers want to use the steaming procedure to sterilise cartridges in a dry condition. This is really complicated for many cartridges on the market, but with the Sartipore Platinum we can.”​

He added: “It has the lowest extractables and leachables level of any other membrane on the market.”​

From cradle to market​

The platform is also fully scalable with cartridges from R&D (research and development) to big processing scale available.

“Customers have less efforts for process validation, they can use the same material the same kind of filter from the very beginningwithout any change of membrane,”​ Meyer added.